Mongolian friendship brings Houstonian into dinosaur case

Updated 7:52 am, Wednesday, January 9, 2013

This Tyrannosaurus Battar dinosaur skeleton was on the auction block in New York but is now slated for return to Mongolia.

This Tyrannosaurus Battar dinosaur skeleton was on the auction block in New York but is now slated for return to Mongolia.

Photo: Andrew King

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This 70 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton is exceptionally well preserved, down to its teeth.

This 70 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton is exceptionally well preserved, down to its teeth.

Photo: Andrew King

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Robert W. Painter, a Houston attorney, has helped the Mongolian government pursue dinosaur bones smuggled out of Mongolia.

Robert W. Painter, a Houston attorney, has helped the Mongolian government pursue dinosaur bones smuggled out of Mongolia.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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Mongolian friendship brings Houstonian into dinosaur case

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Little did Houston attorney Robert Painter know that his decade-old friendship with the president of Mongolia would lead to unraveling an archaeological mystery worthy of Indiana Jones.

In a story that reads like a Hollywood script, Painter played a leading role - including flying to Dallas and New York over a single weekend ­­- to thwart the sale of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton to a private buyer.

Although the rare skeleton was initially sold in May at an auction in New York, the transaction hinged upon resolution of litigation and ultimately was canceled after the U.S. government in June seized the bones.

After further investigation, Florida resident Eric Prokopi, the consignor who had placed the skeleton for auction, pleaded guilty Dec. 27 in federal court in New York to two counts of smuggling and one count of conspiracy.

Prokopi, 38, is scheduled to be sentenced in April and could end up serving up to 17 years in prison for his part in a scheme to illegally import dinosaur fossils from their native countries, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

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As part of his plea, Prokopi, who called himself a "commercial paleontologist," forfeited his claim to the Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton.

Flew to auction

The remarkably intact set of bones looks like a smaller version of its Tyrannosaurus rex cousin, measuring about 30 feet long and 10 feet high, Painter said.

It was set to be auctioned May 20 in New York through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

Two evenings earlier, Painter received an urgent email from an adviser to Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj. Could anything, she asked, be done legally to stop an auction in less than 48 hours in New York.

Painter flew into action. He got involved in the case through his 10-year friendship with Elbegdorj, whom he met at a conference in New Orleans, while Elbegdorj was studying at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The two quickly hit it off and began collaborating on projects.

"We would have never thought of dinosaurs," Painter said, although in the past year he has learned that many of the world's dinosaur fossils are found in Mongolia's Gobi Desert.

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On his quick trip to Dallas that May weekend, Painter met with state District Judge Carlos Cortez, who signed a temporary restraining order to halt the auction.

Then Painter jumped on a plane for New York to witness the auction, which he said included several hundred items but featured the dinosaur skeleton.

Despite the lawyer's multiple emails and faxes to Heritage officials to alert them of the restraining order, the event proceeded on schedule.

Judge on cellphone

Heritage Auctions President Greg Rohan said the company was caught in the middle of needing to protect consignors' rights and respecting the judge's order.

"The auction had been advertised worldwide for weeks," he said. "We never heard from the Mongolian people or Mr. Painter until literally 24 hours before the auction."

Rohan, who attended the auction, said he decided the best way to satisfy everyone was to announce prior to selling the skeleton that the sale would be conditional on the satisfactory resolution of pending litigation in the matter.

When the bidding began on the Tyrannosaurus bataar, Painter called Judge Cortez on his cellphone, stood up and said the proceeding was violating a restraining order.

At that point, Rohan said he ushered Painter to the back of the room, where the Houston lawyer handed his cellphone to Heritage's lawyer to talk to the judge.

The auction proceeded, with the skeleton bidding topping out at $1.1 million.

Painter said he continues to be involved with both the Mongolian government and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in the prosecution of the Tyrannosaurus bataar case and in an ongoing investigation of other dinosaur fossil smuggling.